Andy Weir, the author of the hit science fiction book Project Hail Mary, says that Paramount+’s various new Star Trek shows are terrible.
The bestselling writer spoke to podcaster and Youtube movie review show Critical Drinker and revealed that he made a pitch to Paramount+ on an idea for a new Star Trek series but was blown off by the streaming network.
Critical Drinker host, Will Jordan, praised Hail Mary as one of the best actual science fiction movies in quite some time, and juxtaposed the success of the film to the terrible ratings Paramount’s several recent Star Trek shows earned.
“Yeah, I saw a … I forgot who it was — I wish I could remember who it was who said it, some analyst — he said something like: ‘All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek — except for the current batch of Star Trek shows,’” Weir replied.
That got a laugh out of Jordan who has been extremely critical of what is called the “NuTrek” era helmed by Paramount producer Alex Kurtzman.
“I’m Gen X, so my sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns,” Weir continued. “And there wasn’t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi that was airing — where people are off in space doing cool things — until we got to [Star Trek: The Next Generation].”
Later in the interview, Weir expressed his joy that Paramount’s highly divisive latest Trek series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, has already been cancelled before its second season has even aired. “It’s gone baby! It’s all gone!” he said.
Jordan added that when Paramount finally comes back to producing more Star Trek they should move forward as if nothing from the 2005 series Enterprise all the way to the all the recent shows does not exist. He suggested that all the plots, and history from those shows should be “de-canonized.”
Weir was not prepared to go that far, though.
“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir replied. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go.”
Then he revealed he tried to pitch a show to Paramount.
“I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ’em,” he said.
The two have much justification to bash the more recent Trek shows starting in 2010 with Discovery. Few of the nearly half dozen new shows every gained much traction and some of them were highly divisive. The latest extra wokefest, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, had such poor viewership that a still image of a Spock doll on screen at a Yortube channel earned more viewers than than the premiere of the series earlier this year.
It was so badly received that Paramount+ cancelled the show before its second now finished season was even set to air.
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